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Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
Thu May 17, 2012, 08:28 AM May 2012

Not a black-and-white issue for HBCUs

One glance at the team pictures of the men’s and women’s winners from last weekend’s PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship might make people rethink the term “minority.”

“There’s something missing, isn’t there?” Jackson State golf coach Eddie Payton said with a sly grin. “Pictures are a little grainy, aren’t they?”

The men of Texas Pan-American and the women of Bethune-Cookman each won for the second time in the past three years. Neither school has an African-American on its roster. In fact, half of Bethune-Cookman’s six golfers are European.

Where are all the minority golfers at the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship?

“I raise that question sometimes myself,” said Earnie Ellison, the PGA director of business and community relations, who is African-American. “But we do not tell the coaches who to put on their teams.”

Bethune-Cookman is a historically black college, or HBCU. So is the second-place women’s team, South Carolina State, which featured three African-Americans — including Tiana Jones, who was the individual medalist in the three-round tournament at Port St. Lucie, Fla. — and a pair of Asian sisters.

Still, South Carolina State coach Sandy Burris has no complaints about Bethune-Cookman’s roster.

“I’m in the exact same position as they are,” Burris said. “I’m also the soccer coach and our roster is filled with Californians. I’ll be honest with you: This is a business, and our job is to win.”

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/historically-black-colleges-winning-without-minorities-051612

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